Marseille; Friday, 11 December, 2015

A filling breakfast completed I headed down into town to the harbour to pick up the boat out to the Island of If and its impressive castle.

The island is part of a small archipelago, a couple of hundred meters off the coast at Marseille, with If being the smallest of the islands. The castle features in the Alexander Dumas novel the Count of Monte-Cristo and consequently that has helped to drive quite a tourism industry for the place (even on a Friday morning in winter, a fortnight before Christmas, there were still a good dozen people heading to the island on the boat I was on, and that was the third of the morning)

I had a long look around the castle. Naturally, quite a lot of the space is given over to an exhibition about Alexander Dumas and his life, but there are also small exhibits on the castle itself – though most of the displays were only in French.

I pretty much had managed to exhaust all there was to see on the island a short while before the next boat heading back to Marseille arrived, so I wandered down to the landing stage and picked that up back into town. Once back in the Vieux-Port I wandered round to the starting point of the Petit Train service and picked up their tour up to the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde.

The land train runs up through the old town, taking in several sights, before climbing up to the Basilica where there is a 30-minute stop to get off and look around. The church is about the highest point in the city, with the church dominating the skyline of the city. Naturally, from its terraces the views over Marseille and the islands are incredible.

After looking round the church and taking in the views I headed back to the car park just in time for the next Petit Train to arrive and picked that up heading back down into town. From the last stop on the tour I walked on down the harbourside road to the St Jean fortress and followed the path that runs around the outside of the fortress and over to the city’s Cathedral.

The Cathedral is as impressive as the basilica, but because its down at sea level, and not visible from much of the city, is a bit overlooked – consequently it was considerably quieter that the basilica had been. I had a good look around the Cathedral before heading back towards town and to the stunning MuCEM.

The first national museum to be built outside of Paris the MuCEM has helped to spark a massive regeneration of the harbour area of the city. The former Fort St Jean has been incorporated into the museum complex with the amazing modern museum, and its ramped path that winds its way up the outside of the building, linked to the top level of the fortress via a slim bridge.

I spent a long time looking round both the museum and the fortress, including watching the sun set behind St Nicholas fortress the twin of St Jean located on the opposite bank of the harbour entrance.

Back down in town and I picked up the bus out to the Parc de Pharo, located beyond Fort St Nicholas, to take some photos of the stunning views of the fortresses and harbour at night, before heading back into town for a bite to eat and then, with a full stomach, I waddled back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.